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  12. Step 7 Analyze Your Data
  13. Step 8 What does it mean?
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gabr-tem4

Edit 0 17 …

The Stroop Effect

Broad Question

How can color effect your reading comprehension?

Specific Question

How quickly can your visual system adapt to color and word identification?

Variables

Independent Variable:

Whether or not the color matches the word.

Dependent Variable:

Seconds that it takes person to successfully identify the colors of the words.

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

trials, person(s), cards

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that if the color of the word matches the actual word, then it will make it easy to identify the color, but if the color does not match the word then it will be harder than if it did.

Graph of Hypothesis

General Plan

Experimental Design


I am going to conduct an experiment that will help me to conclude how quickly your visual system can adapt to color and word identification. To conduct my experiment I am going to test 10 people. Each person will take two sets of five trial tests. I will be flashing cards in front of them. The first set will be the word of a color written in that color. The second set will be the word written in a different color. The one being tested will be asked to identify the color of the word. I will have someone recording the number of seconds it takes for the one being tested to successfully tell the color of the word. I will later use the data to make a double-bar graph.
Materials list:
  1. index cards
  2. markers
  3. 10 people (to take the test)
  4. 1 person (to record time)
  5. clock/stopwatch
Detailed Procedure:
  1. Take the index cards and the markers and make two sets of flashcards. The first set will be the name of colors written in the color of the word (example: the word blue would be written in blue marker). The second set will be the name of a color written in a different color (example: the word red would be written in purple marker).
  2. Gather ten people. One at a time take that person and flash the first set of cards in front of them one after the other, (don’t show them the next card until the person gets the one in front of them correct).
  3. Take the same person and flash the second set of cards in front of them the same way that you did in step two.
  4. As you test that person have someone record the time, using the clock or stopwatch, it takes them to successfully tell you what the color is that the word is written in (for both set one and two).
  5. Repeat steps two through four with all ten people.
  6. Record data in a data table and then graph the data in a double-bar graph.

Background Research


References

1. " BACKGROUND ON THE STROOP EFFECT." Rochester Institute of Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://www.rit.edu/cla/gssp400/sbackground.html>.

2. "ScienceBlogs." ScienceBlogs. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://scienceblogs.com>.
3. "Science Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools." Science Fair Project Ideas, Answers, & Tools. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Feb. 2012. <http://www.sciencebuddies.org>.

Results

Data Table



Graphs


Photos


Data Analysis


Conclusion

The original purpose of this experiment was to see if there was a difference in recognition time if the color and word were matching and un-matching. The results of the experiment showed that there is not a big difference in recognition time. The results were mostly scattered. The results for matching color and word were around 1 to 4. The results for un-matching color and word were in between 2 and 6. Even though there was not a significant difference, the results for un-matching color and word were still higher in time, meaning that it was harder to recognize.


Discussion

My hypothesis was that if the color of the word changes then it will be harder to identify the color then if the color and word matched. My results do not support my hypothesis. My results were not very consistent. The results for matching color and word were everywhere from 1 to 4 and my results for un-matching color and word could be anywhere from 2 to 6.
I think that the tests went smoothly with a few minor problems. For the most part the experiment went smoothly. If any problems or errors occurred during the test then the trial was retaken.
If I could improve my experiment then I would try to be more "exact" in the result times. The times were not exact because short moments might have possibly been added to the beginning and/or the end.
An interesting future experiment might involve taking the test with the words somehow "warped" so it was harder to read. It think that this would make it easier to identify the color and the results would be very different.